Northwest Trip Day 4

Labor Day!!! The "plan" was to drive all the way from Salem, OR to Springville, UT all in one day. A REALLY long day of driving, but I was up for it because I knew the end result would have me sleeping in my own bed! (I LOVE my bed and I miss it when I am away!!!) We left Salem around 8:30am and started making our way out of town. We did a quick drive by the Portland Temple, it was really beautiful. Sorry, I don't have a picture as it was a drive by. But if you want to see a picture of the Portland Temple go to http://hanksphotography.blogspot.com
Alright so we are on the road home but first we needed to make another semi quick stop. We had to stop to see Multnomah Falls, which is about 30 miles outside of Portland. I have to say if you are ever driving through you really should stop and check it out. One thing that you need to make sure you do is to eat at the Lodge. It was SOOOO good!!!! I loved their biscuits, but the other food was way yummy, too! We had a great view of the falls while we wait, so it was totally worth it! You can check it out at http://www.multnomahfallslodge.com/
Here are a few pictures of the falls...

Another picture of the falls, they were really pretty!

This is just a picture of the nature around the falls.

One more picture of the falls. This is kind of what we saw while we were eating breakfast. It was a great way to enjoy the morning. It actually was a little chilly which was kind of nice.

And how could I forget...the Multnomah Falls Lodge. So, there is a nice bit of nature around and for those of you who are really outdoorsy you can go hike and stuff. Then you also have the restaurant and don't forget there is a gift shop as well. If you are passing through, it is totally worth it to stop for a little and take a break.

After the falls, we were REALLY on our way home. We had good music, pillows, books, DVD player, snacks...and A/C???? A little while after the falls the A/C stopped blowing air. Like on full blast nothing at all. We thought it was a little odd because Jenn's car is a 2006 and nothing out of the ordinary happened to the car. The temperature of the car stayed the same, so we just kept going. Driving through Eastern Oregon is not like driving around Portland. It was a little on the warm side. (Boise was 101 that day so Eastern Oregon was in the 90s.) We had the windows cracked and at times we had the sunroof open. Because we couldn't get any air to come out of the vent either. It wasn't the most pleasant ride that I have ever been on but not the most uncomfortable either. We just kind of looked at it as another adventure! And one to make us really grateful to actually have A/C in our cars. We made it to Boise and we were totally ready to take a little break from the HOT car. Our plan was to visit Jenn's friend for a little bit, grab some dinner and then head back out on the road. Well, when we got to the friend's house, they weren't home. But Jenn's Dad was having her checkout her car to see if she could see anything wrong with it. While Jenn was talking to her Dad I called mine, because I figured two Dad's can be better then one, right? By this time it was almost 7pm on a holiday. We decided that we were going to stay in Boise and get this A/C thing figured out. I called the hotel that we had stayed at a few days earlier and we were in luck, they had room. We made a stop at Fred Meyer's (yes, Fred Meyer's does exist outside of the state of Utah) and headed to the hotel. Still with no A/C, as we were getting closer to the hotel I turned it on just for kicks and giggles to see what it would do. You will never believe it but came on FULL FORCE!!! Apparently, it froze up on us and needed time to thaw. Without car trouble to worry about we were ready to enjoy our evening. A shower was the first thing on the agenda because we felt like we had been at the lake all day. (Sorry no before pictures...it wasn't exactly a picture perfect moment.) Then we headed out for some good food. We found the Cheesecake Factory Thursday night and headed back there. Here are our "after" pictures...Jenn with her Chinese Chicken Salad. Looks pretty cool, huh? Oh and doesn't she look SOOO pretty?

Here I am with my Mango something salad. I can't remember the full name but I remember there were mangoes in it! It was really good! And it felt SO good to get cleaned up, put on cute clothes and go out. That is such a girl comment! And it was SO much fun! Then we went back to the hotel and totally CRASHED! So much for really going out on the town. But we were tired, we played a lot in Oregon!